Using unanswered questions to teach - John Gensic

Carol Dweck, who is now at Stanford,

conducted a research experiment

where she compared 7th graders in two different groups.

One group, she taught study skills to,

and the other group,

they taught a mini-neuroscience class

about how their brain worked.

They followed those two groups

throughout their middle school math grades

and noticed that the group

who had the mini-neuroscience course

was much more successful in their math grades

than the group that had the conventional study skills,

like being organized

and using note cards.

The reason, they believe,

that the group had the mini-neuroscience course

did so much better

is that they were picturing the formations

and the connections in their brains occurring

while they were learning.

They were also able to have a certain level of resilience,

knowing that their brain was more of a muscle

and not a stone that couldn't grow any larger.

Having this resilience,

having students understand

that their brains can continue to grow,

allows them the confidence to struggle with situations,

to wrestle out that information

to come to deeper understanding.

So, how does this look in my classroom?

How do I attempt to get students

to struggle with information and wrestle with it

so they come up with deeper levels of understanding?

Primarily, I use unanswered questions.

For example, I'll give students a jar

and say it's 500 grams,

and inside that sealed jar

is a moist paper towel with about six to seven seeds.

What do you think will happen

to the mass of the container

as those seeds begin to grow?

And the students will then write

on a little half-sheet of paper

what they think is going to happen and why.

Depending on the class,

I will have the students sometimes work in partners

to kind of combine ideas,

see what they think of each other's reasons,

maybe work in groups of four

and then groups of eight

and come to consensus.

But, sometimes, I'll have the students pass in

all that information without conversing about it,

and I will then read their explanations

so that they are anonymously presented ideas

that no student can rely upon

the other smart students

to say, 'Oh, I agree with Sally

because she's always got the right answer.'

That rarely happens in my class.

At this point, I will probably stop the conversation

after I've read these out loud

and leave students wondering.

Wondering, what is the right answer?

What evidence is good evidence?

Because I want them,

when they leave the classroom,

to continue to want to know more,

to continue to want to make more connections.

So, in addition to unanswered questions,

I will often pose problems and projects

for students to work on.

And, when I have them work on

these problems and projects,

I'll give them about 15 to 20 minutes to brainstorm

how to solve the problem

or how to go about completing the project.

And this 15 to 20 minutes happens

well before I expect a lot of work

to be done on the project.

I don't want them to try to produce too much

because I want them to try to figure out in their brains,

give themselves a chance

to struggle with the information overnight,

while they go about their daily activities.

For example, I might give a project

where you need to explain or teach a 6th grader

the simple concept of endosymbiosis.

And the students then have

a whole bunch of questions generated

related to this project.

They have things that they need to know

from me,

from other resources.

But I have not given them

the questions and the answers to memorize,

their brain is actively seeking out

the understanding of this concept

so that they can teach it to others.

We would like to, as teachers,

think that students love everything that we teach them,

and we think that they understand everything

and want to engage with our content

outside of the school day.

Students don't do that.

Most students don't do that.

So, through mass one-way text messaging,

I'm able to resend them the question

or the topic from that day.

To get them to re-engage

and touch the content one more time.

And, hopefully, get that seed planted in their brain

so that they want to think about it more,

so that their brains come up with

those "Ah-ha!" moments at obscure times.

My goal is for students to generate the story,

their story,

of the content that I teach.

I would love for them

to completely understand my story

and understand it deeply,

but I know if I just get them to understand it

as I understand it,

that will simply ooze out of their brains,

and they will not have information and the knowledge

that is applicable in other situations.

They will not have knowledge

that they can ask more questions about.

They are simply understanding to please me,

and then it's gone.

"It's not that I'm so smart,

it's just that I stay with problems longer."

We, as teachers, need to encourage and facilitate

students staying with problems longer.

Thanks.